WPR10CA064 · Bell Helicopter Textron 206L-1
Papillon Airways Bell Helicopter Textron 206L-1 · Accident: roll over during takeoff
From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (KGCN) to Grand Canyon National Park Airport (KGCN)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10CA064
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bell Helicopter Textron 206L-1
- Aircraft type
- Bell 206
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N177PA
- Operator
- Papillon Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (KGCN), Grand Canyon, AZTo Grand Canyon National Park Airport (KGCN), Grand Canyon, AZ
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Roll over
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certified flight instructor and pilot under instruction completed their helicopter external load training and landed the helicopter in a clear and level spot. Both pilots exited the helicopter, unhooked the external line, and verified the helicopter was clear of any skid entanglement. Both pilots reentered the helicopter. The pilot under instruction began to apply collective to lift the helicopter off the ground. As the helicopter started to come up, the left skid lifted first and the helicopter began to roll to the right. Both pilots applied full down collective and full left cyclic but the helicopter continued to roll over on its right side. The pilot stated that the helicopter and engine had no mechanical failures or malfunctions during the external load training portion of the flight
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10CA064
- Event ID
- 20091123X51050
- Case number
- WPR10CA064
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f9943e55e1f64ec86953709c4a81cab6fba9065bdcdd2e271c99fa3aa81987b3; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:30:54.213Z.